Closings and Delays

Winter and the Challenge of School Transportation and Forecasting/Predictions in Regards to School Delays or Cancellations

Annually, school districts enter the stage of preparing for the many challenges of transporting students safely and carefully throughout the winter in most of our Pennsylvania communities. Last week, the School District, members of the Smith Bus Team, and representatives of Center Township met to coordinate and review winter transportation procedures. 

During extreme weather, the safety and welfare of the students remains the top priority. Often, area Superintendents discuss and/or confer regarding the weather reports as the potential extreme weather event nears. Accurate weather reports are shared from the office of the Warning Coordination Meteorologist, from the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. This is one item in making the decision of a delayed schedule or a cancellation due to snow/cold. There may be times when a decision is made the evening before the main weather event. Most often, early in the morning Superintendents will communicate and gather the most up to date information regarding their school districts, the transportation situation, temperature, road conditions and possible accumulation. One informative item gathered will be information disseminated from regional Penn DOT offices. This information is used in conjunction with the knowledge shared by the local township supervisors and their actual road report gathered while on duty, along with the projected schedule of road treatment to occur prior to any student buses beginning their schedule. In most cases, a delay or cancellation decision will be made prior to 6:00 AM. Delays or cancellations due to extreme cold and wind chills usually are triggered when temperatures decrease to negative 15 degrees or worse.

Once a decision has been made, based upon all gathered information available at the time, the distribution and sharing of that decision begins. In the school districts of ARIN IU 28, SchoolCast is notified. SchoolCast posts almost in real time the decision of the school district. Internal communication occurs to share the weather related decision with the bus company, employees of the school district and then the media outlets. Homer-Center normally places public notification of the weather related decision on the District and school web pages, with local radio stations, and the television stations in Pittsburgh, Johnstown and Altoona, in addition to ARIN IU 28 SchoolCast.